Written Answers Thursday 23 December 2010

Scottish Executive

Agriculture

Tavish Scott (Shetland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it is making of the need to reassess the single farm payments of farmers and crofters whose stock densities during the payment reference period were reduced as a result of an Environmentally Sensitive Area Scheme agreement or another conservation agreement and the outcome of the recent Court of Appeal case of Regina (TA Gwillim & Sons) v Welsh Ministers and what action it will take if any reassessment finds that a backdated increase in payments is due.

Richard Lochhead: My officials are studying the judgement in the case of between The Queen (on the application of TA Gwillim and Sons) and the Welsh Ministers as delivered by the Court of Appeal. Although the overall judgement was in favour of Messrs Gwillim, it also upheld part of the original decision made following the original hearing that it was not sufficient simply to be under an agri-environmental commitment but the producer had to show that production had been adversely affected. That principle was as the heart of the Scottish arrangements to address applications for relief because stock levels had been affected by either hardship or agri-environment conditions or both. This is clearly not a straightforward issue, hence the need to study the judgement carefully. I will write to you separately with our findings and although it is too soon to indicate what they might be; our guiding principle is that Scottish producers should be treated no worse than their Welsh counterparts.

Class Sizes

Karen Gillon (Clydesdale) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what its most recent assessment was of class sizes for primary one to three pupils.

Michael Russell: The recently published schools census shows that 21.7% of P1 to P3 pupils were either in classes of 18 or fewer, or in two teacher classes of 36 or fewer. This exceeded the 20% target that we agreed with COSLA earlier this year and means that more P1 to P3 pupils are benefitting from the increased time with their teacher that goes hand in hand with smaller class sizes.

Culture

Jim Hume (South of Scotland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what its assessment is of the potential impact of the 2010-11 Scotland’s Winter Festivals programme.

Fiona Hyslop: The Scottish Executive has transferred operational responsibility for the delivery of St Andrew’s Day and Winter Festivals commitments to EventScotland from 2010 onwards. The change of delivery model will bring about a sharper economic focus to Winter Festivals activity, and will ensure that these benefits are extended beyond central Scotland. EventScotland, as delivery agents, will put in place their own methods of evaluation, which includes:

  Asking each funded event to submit a post-event outcome report.

  Commissioning event audience research for St Andrew’s Day events.

  Undertaking Media Evaluation.

  Monitoring web traffic on the campaign websites.

Looked After Children

Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of looked after children entered into a higher education course in the last year.

Adam Ingram: The School Leavers Destination Publication (1 December 2010) indicates that 2.1% of school leavers, identified as being "Looked After" during their final year at school, were in higher education approximately three months after leaving from the academic year 2009-10.